EDITOR:

I am 78 years old living in senior housing. The last time I wrote a letter to an editor was years ago when Memorial Day was changed to fit in with a three-day weekend. I feel compelled to write to you because I agree with your editorial on the mental health situation. You mentioned G. Pierce Wood Memorial Hospital in your editorial. I grew up on Long Island in New York, where there were quite a few mental hospitals. They were also closed down, with the idea that there would be halfway houses for the patients so they could get their medicines and any help they might need. That did not happen. My first late husband and I used to drive through Kings Park, Long Island, on our way to and from work. We saw folks sleeping in doorways. You were right about folks being dumped on the streets. I also think that our children are not being taught about guns like we were. Guns stood in our kitchen — they were for hunting for food , not to shoot at others and birds and animals for no reason. I also agree that mental health data should be available for gun background checks. It would stop some of the nuts out there, but I don’t know if it would have stopped that nut who killed those children. His mother knew he had a problem, yet had guns where he could get them and, sad to say, paid with her life. He should have been in a mental hospital. As far as legalizing marijuana, it makes sense (although I never tried it ). Folks should think back to Prohibition and by making liquor legal. Taxing the sale of it certainly stopped the smugglers. Sorry to make this so long, but I just wanted you to know your editorial was, as they say, “right on.”